Innovation Fund Awards $475,000 to Seven Northeast Ohio Startups

September 2, 2014: The Innovation Fund, Northeast Ohio's most active and successful pre-seed fund for technology startups, has committed $475,000 to seven Northeast Ohio companies in its latest quarterly funding round. Four companies received $100,000 awards meant to prove out business models while three received $25,000 awards intended to validate technologies.

The Innovation Fund has maintained its quarterly funding pace since its 2007 founding. With these most recent awards, the Innovation Fund has made 161 funding awards to 137 companies totaling $9.2 million.

"The Innovation Fund is consistently the first place Northeast Ohio startups go for external financing," said Cliff Reynolds, co-director of GLIDE, the incubator that administers the fund. "Every quarter without fail, the Innovation Fund is awarding critical early-stage funding to several of our region's innovative, young companies. We're giving as many startups as we can a chance to prove their potential, raise some more money, and create jobs."

The startups receiving Innovation Fund awards are:

Full Circle Technologies ($100,000 | Pepper Pike)Full Circle Technologies has developed a patented chemical mechanical process to devulcanize old tires, turning them back into sticky, elastic rubber which is then made into a free flowing pellet. The end product, called Ecorphalt, is used as a polymer modifier in asphalt roads to make it last longer, more durable and create a smoother surface.

Intwine Connect ($100,000 | Chagrin Falls)Intwine Connect has created an automated building energy management system that integrates electronic hardware and software, allowing devices to communicate and make intelligent decisions with respect to their environment. This unified IT system enables energy efficiency through automated, intelligent, and intuitive web and mobile applications. intwineconnect.com

LARAD ($100,000 | Wooster)LARAD is using virus-like-particle technology to produce universal multivalent vaccines and diagnostics for food-animal diseases. LARAD's initial focus is on products licensed from The Ohio State University for an immunosuppressive disease in poultry caused by the infectious bursal disease virus.

Complion ($100,000 | Cleveland)Complion increases the quality and efficiency of clinical trials at hospitals with a comprehensive Regulatory e-System. complion.com

Beegit ($25,000 | Olmsted Township)Beegit is a web platform to create, manage and measure your content. Write all of your content in one place and get the benefit of simple version control, universal export to print and digital formats, andinsight and data from user activity metrics. beegit.com

Brilliency ($25,000 | Cleveland)Brilliency transforms the energy ecosystem by redefining the role of residential consumers and creating new monetary transactions around electric conservation, generation, and consumption. The Brilliant Efficiency platform allows electric, gas and water utilities to develop value-added relationships with the consumers by rewarding them for making behavior changes that enable utilities to implement new technology roll-outs, pricing structure changes, and infrastructure reinvestment. brilliency.com

PROJiTECH ($25,000 | Hinckley)PROJiTECH works with businesses that design and build civil projects by providing project-specific applications that allow them to quickly and easily access project information. The company's app, OnStation, provides features that increase awareness and understanding of the project design, helping businesses organize, communicate, and direct work throughout the project. projitechllc.com

About the Innovation FundThe Innovation Fund, founded by the Lorain County Community College Foundation, is Northeast Ohio's most active and successful early-stage fund. It awards technology-based startups up to $100,000 so they can validate their technologies and business concepts. The Innovation Fund averages six funding awards each quarter and fills the capital needs of businesses at the earliest stage of development, before they can attract angel and venture capital funding. Innovation Fund awards are made with funds from the Ohio Third Frontier, which have been combined with matching support and contributions from the Innovation Fund partners. These partners include the University of Akron, the University of Akron Research Foundation, Cleveland State University, the Great Lakes Innovation and Development Enterprise (GLIDE), the Lorain County Community College Foundation, Stark State College, Youngstown State University, the Youngstown Business Incubator, and Northeast Ohio Medical University.